Julie’s resurrected race goes swimmingly

Julie Bradshaw took the plunge by reviving an event after two decades . . . and in the end it all went swimmingly.

And now Blackpool’s Pier to Pier open water challenge could once again become an annual event.

The swimmers enter the water at the North Pier, Blackpool

More than 50 hardened open water swimmers took to the Irish Sea to test themselves over a 1.6 mile course from the North Pier to the South Pier.

“That was just the right number because we didn’t want anything too big for our first attempt,” said the former Channel swimmer.

“It was pretty much like a trial run this year to see how it went.

“Now next year we can open it up to more people.”

The swimmers set off from the North Pier to the South Pier

Julie, who has a pretty impressive record in open water swimming, was born and bred in Blackpool and, although she now lives away from the Fylde, she wanted to revive the iconic race back in her hometown.

“We don’t know exactly how many years it is since it was last staged in Blackpool,” she said.

“But I spoke to one guy who used to swim in it and said it was round about the eighties.

“I’ve no idea why it stopped. But it’s a great event and we wanted to bring it back.

“Judging by how well it went at the weekend we will be looking at making it an annual thing.

“It went absolutely brilliantly - you could say swimmingly.

“We’ve had excellent feedback and it seems everyone really enjoyed it and talked about coming back next year.”